Friday, October 17, 2008

QSS Founder - The new Chairman of StateDemocracy Foundation

After selling QSS for $250 million last year, Frank Islam tells us he's supposed to be retired, but as we found out earlier this week, he is anything but. He's running FI Investment Group, hosting a television show, and recently signed on as chairman of the State Democracy Foundation, a Bowie-based non-profit portal providing comprehensive voter registration information, online voting tools, and connecting citizens with national and state legislators. But will it connect us with Joe the Plumber?

Frank met State Democracy founder Shukoor Ahmed years ago when Shukoor was running for the Maryland House of Delegates. The two remained friends, and following Frank's "retirement," Shukoor approached him to become the new chair. "With the times we're in, it is imperative that people reach out to their leaders, and we give them the information they need to do so," Frank says, noting the site has increased traffic 400% in the past month.

Here at Frank's Tysons office, State Democracy executive director Ken Laureys tells us he didn't have to think hard about the new chairman: "Frank built a quarter of a billion dollar company, so who better to take our organization to the next level?" Even un-retired, Frank has still managed some travel. He's just back from a European vacation where he traced his wife's Dutch ancestry, finding her parent's original farm and church, which was the same one that Vincent Van Gogh's father once preached at. (Doesn't this story end with Tom Hanks fending off Opus Dei?) Frank also traveled to Barcelona and visited the building where Christopher Columbus met Queen Isabella upon returning from America.